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Baker panel's mention of Palestinian "right of return" raises eyebrows
AFP ^ | December 6, 2006

Posted on 12/06/2006 1:00:35 PM PST by West Coast Conservative

A reference to Palestinians' "right of return" in the report issued by the high-level Iraq Study Group broke a diplomatic taboo which sparked immediate concern in Israel and surprise among Middle East policy experts.

The reference was buried deep inside a 160-page report that urged US President George W. Bush to renew efforts to revive Israel-Palestinian peace talks as part of a region-wide bid to end the chaos in Iraq.

"This report is worrisome for Israel particularly because, for the first time, it mentions the question of the 'right of return' for the Palestinian refugees of 1948," said a senior Israeli official, who was reacting to the US policy report on condition he not be identified.

A Middle East analyst who was involved in the Iraq Study Group discussions but did not participate in drafting the report expressed surprise when the reference was pointed out to him by a reporter.

"It's hard to know whether that language got in there because of carelessness -- I know there were many revisions up to the very last minute -- or whether it was a deliberate attempt to fuse something to the Bush rhetoric which wasn't there before," the analyst said.

The 1993 Oslo peace accords between Israel and the Palestinians calls for a resolution of the issue of Israeli and Palestinian "refugees" as part of a final status agreement that would include the creation of a Palestinian state.

But they do not use the term "right of return", which is a long-standing Palestinian demand -- rejected by Israel -- that Palestinians who fled or were driven out of what was to become the Jewish state in 1948, as well as their descendants, be allowed to return home.

Bush, in a 2002 speech in the White House Rose Garden, became the first US president to formally back the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel, but he also did not mention a right of Palestinian 'return'.

The bipartisan Iraq Study Group's co-chairman is former secretary of state James Baker, who as the top diplomat for Bush's father in the early 1990s clashed with Israel over its handling of the Palestinian issue.

Among his group's 79 recommendations for a policy shift on Iraq, number 17 concerned five points it said should be included in a negotiated peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

The final point in the list was: "Sustainable negotiations leading to a final peace settlement along the lines of President Bush's two-state solution, which would address the key final status issues of borders, settlements, Jerusalem, the right of return and the end of conflict."

"'Right of return' is not in Oslo I or Oslo II, it's not in the Bush Rose Garden speech, it's not even in UN 181, the original partition resolution -- it's part of the Palestinian discourse," said the US analyst.


TOPICS: Egypt; Foreign Affairs; Israel; News/Current Events; Russia; Syria; US: Florida; US: Georgia; US: Texas; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 1938; 2016election; appeasementdeluxe; baker; egypt; election2016; florida; gaza; georgia; hamas; iran; iraq; israel; israeldropdead; jamesbaker; jebbush; jstreet; lebanon; munich; newtgingrich; rightofreturn; russia; saudiarabia; sinai; surrendertojihad; syria; tedcruz; texas; waronterror
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1 posted on 12/06/2006 1:00:39 PM PST by West Coast Conservative
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To: West Coast Conservative
The Baker plan is a surrender plan...
2 posted on 12/06/2006 1:02:04 PM PST by 2banana (My common ground with terrorists - they want to die for islam and we want to kill them)
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To: West Coast Conservative

James Baker, an American Quisling. I am sickened.


3 posted on 12/06/2006 1:02:06 PM PST by Williams
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To: West Coast Conservative

Let's just feed Israel to the crocodile.

Maybe then he'll leave us alone.



Maybe.


4 posted on 12/06/2006 1:02:25 PM PST by A Balrog of Morgoth (With fire, sword, and stinging whip I drive the RINOs in terror before me.)
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To: A Balrog of Morgoth

Baker just achieved a "political compromise" with the kookiest and most wrong headed thinking of the modern left.


5 posted on 12/06/2006 1:03:57 PM PST by Williams
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To: West Coast Conservative
Baker has always viewed Israel as an annoyance at best, and as a enemy at worst.

An Arabist to the core.

6 posted on 12/06/2006 1:04:35 PM PST by Mr. Mojo
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To: West Coast Conservative

Hey Baker!

Do Jews have a right of return to the following countries they've been kicked out of?

Saudi Arabia
Yemen
Egypt
Syria
Iran
Iraq
Lebanon
Turkey
Jordan
Kuwait

Did the ethnic cleansing by your Arab buddies ever cross your mind, or is it only Jews who must be demographically integrated?


7 posted on 12/06/2006 1:05:17 PM PST by Uncle Miltie (Crusades were indigenous peoples' counter-attacks against imperialist foreign Muslim invaders)
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To: West Coast Conservative

Don't leave it at Baker. Incoming SecDef Gates was on the commission and helped write the report. Who do you think is now setting US Middle East policy?


8 posted on 12/06/2006 1:05:49 PM PST by Alter Kaker ("Whatever tears one sheds, in the end one always blows one's nose." - Heine)
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To: West Coast Conservative
Could this get any worse?

(Don't answer that.)

9 posted on 12/06/2006 1:06:07 PM PST by colorado tanker
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To: 2banana

This undertone in the report that Israel is at the heart of the Middle East problem and specifically Iraq, is an intensely kooky view of the World. Israel is not the motivation for Al Queda, or the factions in Iraq. This report is left wing and anti-semitic wishful thinking.


10 posted on 12/06/2006 1:06:07 PM PST by Williams
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To: West Coast Conservative

Bumpitttt.


11 posted on 12/06/2006 1:06:27 PM PST by Rocko
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To: West Coast Conservative

Who appointed the study group? Is this another one of "W's" blunders?


12 posted on 12/06/2006 1:07:01 PM PST by em2vn
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To: West Coast Conservative
"A reference to Palestinians' 'right of return' in the report issued by the high-level Iraq Study Group..."

This group sounds more like U.N. antisemitic idiots who run despotic regimes yet refuse to admit that Israel is a democratically elected government that is hated and despised by each and every one of it's neighbors.

How totally disgusting, depraved and worthless this bunch of has beens this bunch is. We need each and every dollar spent on them given back to the American taxpayers!

13 posted on 12/06/2006 1:07:17 PM PST by zerosix (Native Sunflower (Kansan)
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To: West Coast Conservative
Better to label it the Baker's Anti-Zion Plan. He'll harm all of our friends and reward all of our enemies.
14 posted on 12/06/2006 1:07:17 PM PST by elhombrelibre (Iraq: the next country Liberals want to abandon just before Israel.)
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To: West Coast Conservative
Elections have consequences.

I hope that American Jews are happy with the consequences that 87% of them voted for. I just don't get this at all.
15 posted on 12/06/2006 1:07:20 PM PST by horse_doc
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To: West Coast Conservative

James Baker is an ass. This was the Iraq study group and they throw gasoline on the fire by diverting to Israel as the problem.


16 posted on 12/06/2006 1:08:15 PM PST by Williams
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To: West Coast Conservative

Funny the commision couldn't stay focused on Iraq.

What did they think they were there to do?


17 posted on 12/06/2006 1:08:33 PM PST by Son House
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To: em2vn

Next they will be talking about "right of return" for Mexicans...


18 posted on 12/06/2006 1:09:35 PM PST by linear (2009: Hillary wears her favorite veil to receive annual "Profiles in Courage" award.)
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Comment #19 Removed by Moderator

To: Williams

James Baker has ALWAYS been against Israel. This is no suprise. What a disaster this President has turned into...Shame on GW Bush....


20 posted on 12/06/2006 1:09:39 PM PST by Hildy ("Death plucks my ear and says - LIVE - I am coming.....")
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